Soft hands, move your feet, rotate the strike

The three keys that West Indian batsmen need to playing spin.

Yes, this is a sharp turner and most batsmen will fail on a track of this nature. Pakistan routed England in similar conditions but the way forward must be to implement those three key areas.

Mr. Sammy, you have work to do...

In reply to 4REALQUICKS

Should've went out and used 'baz-ball' tactics, you will either lose your wicket attacking or put the bowler off their line.

In reply to WICFan

Door #1 is the winner.

In reply to 4REALQUICKS

Hodge and brathwaithe were just dumb dismissals the rest of them were just poor techniques against spin

In reply to 4REALQUICKS

Rotating the strike is the key to batting any type of bowling. However there are many good and great batsmen who have never left their creases.

The only way to bat any type of bowling well and especially spin, is to play the ball in what they now call the box. You have to be patient to let the ball come into the box and you have to play the ball while keeping you head as vertical as possible, playing under the eye line and behind the line of the ball.

The spin off the pitch is often only an illusion and your bat will always be your best line of defense. You can’t practice for the type of spin off the wicket in the subcontinent doing throw downs on concrete strips in the Caribbean.

So many times you see persons using their feet and then bailing because essentially they are just guessing. They haven’t truly look at the ball and in many times most even move before the ball is delivered meaning it’s all premeditated.

Which WINDIEA batsmen of any era does the twinkle toes and dancing feet apply?

In reply to mkcharles

As a youngster I saw Tony King played spin bowling, he was a classic, he danced all the time to the spinners.

In reply to tc1

Yea he was one…

In reply to 4REALQUICKS


CWI


I said before.....current WI batsmen should have gone to India too
And a few of the above players should have gone to Pakistan....what is happening in Pakistan was predictable with respect to playing spin

In reply to Narper

I agree with you, absolutely. Why wait to try and fix the problem? Get the current batsmen under the microscope too...not just the youngsters.

In reply to mkcharles

When the batsmen are staying back, afraid to come forward and trying to play the ball as late as possible, they are inviting trouble so use of the feet is paramount, especially against spinners who can build pressure against fearful batting.

Eyeline batting with a still head is absolutely how they should play - whether it be on the move or in the crease, against whatever type of bowling. Seaming pitches, spinning pitches, swinging conditions...any time the ball is doing anything, West Indian batsmen are lost at sea. Until those basic fundamentals are properly addressed, nothing will change.

I would not be too hard on the batsmen for getting out cheaply on this sort of surface, if they had shown the ability and aptitude to approach their game in the correct manner. Patently, they do not.

So many players who use soft hands have saved themselves from losing their wicket on numerous occasions, thanks to not going hard at the ball. The deftness of a late cut can reward equally as well as a handsome off drive.

In the Caribbean, batsmen play too much cricket on dull, lifeless pitches. Nothing for the quicks but the odd ball staying low. Understandably, regional captains want to win and the knowledge that even basic to mediocre spinners will skittle regional batting orders, prevails.

It is high time that the West Indies made SERIOUS moves towards making the home grounds hard, pacy pitches and create a decent home advantage such as England, Pakistan and other teams do. Look back at that tour of the Caribbean by India...those pitches were like something from the subcontinent! They rolled out the carpet for the visitors instead of playing to the strength of the West Indies of old. Shamar Joseph, Jayden Seales...and to a lesser extent Alzarri...these guys can lead the attack for years and do so in a formidable manner...but give them the surfaces that reward their efforts.

Rant over, well, for now...

In reply to 4REALQUICKS


Sammy going to show dem how to bat spin?

In reply to imusic

As head coach, he better have somebody in place that will do that or they falter again and again and again.

LIKE VIV COULDNT PLAY SPIN EEDAH

In reply to 4REALQUICKS

Playing with soft hands and playing in the box are not the same discussion. To be a good player of any type of bowling requires you to play with soft hands.

Also playing the ball in the box has nothing to do with being afraid to come forward. Using your feet is one form of playing the ball in the box, but it’s not the only way. Lara and Chanderpaul, different players of spin and despite one being a genius the other was still a pretty good player of spin.

The very best players of spin in fact use the depth of the crease and the alignment of their body relative to the pitch of the ball to get into good positions from which their bat can access the ball. You never see good players just on the front foot because good spinners will beat both sides of a vertical bat when you play at the line of the ball and usually outside of the box when you adopt this as your only approach to combat the spin.

The point about using the feet that people don’t get is that is simply a way to get closer to the ball so you can hit the ball in the box. However you will never do this well if you don’t maintain the correct head position. Use of the feet does not make you automatically a good player of spin.

It can be equally effective to allow the ball to come to the hit zone and play it either forward or backward directly under the eye line.

The conventional way of playing spin by most countries outside of Asia is you sweep everything based on line. So essentially everyone is practicing 3 or 4 basic types of sweep shots for hours and hours. What is clear to me however is that our fellas don’t seem to have a blue print for how they want to play this spin. The is evident by the fact that each batsmen got out in a different way.

More of the same second innings

Louis used his feet ran down the pitch and got bowled

In reply to velo

There you go